Air Conditioning Mk 7 Fiesta

[cappers]

Bought my Mk 7 when it was 6 months old. Just statrted using the air con, and compared to other air con I have experienced, it does not seem as cold as it should be?? All correct setting on the heather panel etc. Anyone else find this? Is it just a characteristic, or could or could there be something wrong?

My car has done bout 6k miles so uless previous owner had it on all the time which I doubt.....?

Thanks for any advice/views

[MRC89]

Mines recently started warming up at 14k Miles, I think mine just needs a recharge. When I bought her at 6k miles she was still ice cold. Really depends how much the previous owner has used it though.

[cappers]

Mines recently started warming up at 14k Miles, I think mine just needs a recharge. When I bought her at 6k miles she was still ice cold. Really depends how much the previous owner has used it though.

Maybe it was used all the time. Will not know.

Will ask them to have a look when they do the service. Presumably they can tell if its a recharge issue?

It is certinly not ice cold as you have mentioned.

[eyemdee]

Maybe it was used all the time.

I have always understood that it is better for the aircon to use it all the time and it is lack of use which causes the seals to dry out and leak refrigerant. They always recommend using it for at least 10 minutes per week even in the winter.

My Mk7 and my previous 2 cars have had climate control which I always leave on permanently but just for the record the cold air on my Mk7 does not feel as icy cold as on my last car.

I am sure they will be able to advise at service time.

[Smett72]

I commented on this when I took mine in for a courtesy check after a month. They said everything was fine, so maybe it is just a quirk of the car. It may just be that the air-con isn't as powerful as on others cars, it certainly isn't as powerful as the old Mk2 Mondeo I used to have.

[Danny87]

The air conditioning in my (granted older model) isn't that good at all to be honest. It was owned by an older guy since 2003 and I don't think he's ever used it. There's a garage a few miles away with a sign saying air conditioning service from £29.99 so I'll see what they think. They may be really great or may try and tell me the car needs £££££'s worth of work, if it's the latter I won't bother as I've never had air conditioning on my own cars before, you can't miss what you've never had I guess? :D

Dan

[Amberes]

1- airco in the fiesta has poor performance

2- airco in a car without special sunheat preventing windshield will never give good results

Ford still treats the Fiesta as their cheap model.

[cappers]

Hmmm? Differing of opinions here. Dont get me wrong it works OK, but never chilly as with others Ive had. See what they say service time I think

[cyb]

1- airco in the fiesta has poor performance

2- airco in a car without special sunheat preventing windshield will never give good results

3. Ford still treats the Fiesta as their cheap model.

1) seems fine in mine :)

2) Really ??? I drive Ford, Vauxhall and Toyota variants non that I know have 'special wind-shields' all have ice cold air con. Even holiday rentals in hot countries that I have driven will give good cold air as long as the system is maintained and used correctly. :)

3) The price and quality of the fiesta is why it is the UK's biggest selling small car - how are Ford supposed to treat it?

[Mariner]

My Mk 7 Titanium is 2 years old and just had its second service and the Aircon checked and recharged. Aircon is now icy cold and the recharge only cost £30 at my local Ford dealer.

[KeithC]

I have always understood that it is better for the aircon to use it all the time and it is lack of use which causes the seals to dry out and leak refrigerant. They always recommend using it for at least 10 minutes per week even in the winter.

And you will be correct. There's more chance of it needing attention due to it not being used than vice versa.

The last 5 cars I've had I've never turned A/C off and never needed any work done on them. Turning it off might save you 1 or 2 mpg, but personally, I'd rather drive around in a comfortably environment than save a few pennies.

[orcomma]

And you will be correct. There's more chance of it needing attention due to it not being used than vice versa.

The last 5 cars I've had I've never turned A/C off and never needed any work done on them. Turning it off might save you 1 or 2 mpg, but personally, I'd rather drive around in a comfortably environment than save a few pennies.

just to add to that, in a diesel usually there is even less difference to the economy because of the torque produced.

[PumpkinSteve]

I posted a week or two ago about my air con being crap, my previous four cars were ice cold. The air con in my Fiesta is terrible, I ended up switching it off and opening my window last time it was hot, which sort of negates the whole point of having it in the first place.

[2011fiesta]

I posted a week or two ago about my air con being crap, my previous four cars were ice cold. The air con in my Fiesta is terrible, I ended up switching it off and opening my window last time it was hot, which sort of negates the whole point of having it in the first place.

Same here.

I might pay the £30 for a recharge if we're getting another heat wave. Although for a few days I may just wait til the start of next summer

[Amberes]

1) seems fine in mine

2) Really ??? I drive Ford, Vauxhall and Toyota variants non that I know have 'special wind-shields' all have ice cold air con. Even holiday rentals in hot countries that I have driven will give good cold air as long as the system is maintained and used correctly.

3) The price and quality of the fiesta is why it is the UK's biggest selling small car - how are Ford supposed to treat it?

1) if you're ok with it, then it's ok (for you) ... probably you never had a car with a good overall cooling.

2) Then you haven't driven a car with heatprotected frontwindow yet. The Fiesta airco works fine, gives cold, but can't beat the heat that comes through the window(s). It's cool on the hands and in the face ... but it should lower the temperature overall. In the fiesta you'll only get colder hands and a cold face .... but that's not how it should be.

3) The price is way to high for what it gives and way to many problemcars too.

I am lucky, mine is fine with no defects.

[eyemdee]

The Fiesta airco works fine, gives cold, but can't beat the heat that comes through the window(s). It's cool on the hands and in the face ... but it should lower the temperature overall. In the fiesta you'll only get colder hands and a cold face .... but that's not how it should be.

I'm not sure I understand. Mine has climate control which reduces the fan speed as the interior temperature comes down. This appears to work fine so it must surely be reducing the temperature.

[MRC89]

1) if you're ok with it, then it's ok (for you) ... probably you never had a car with a good overall cooling.

2) Then you haven't driven a car with heatprotected frontwindow yet. The Fiesta airco works fine, gives cold, but can't beat the heat that comes through the window(s). It's cool on the hands and in the face ... but it should lower the temperature overall. In the fiesta you'll only get colder hands and a cold face .... but that's not how it should be.

3) The price is way to high for what it gives and way to many problemcars too.

I am lucky, mine is fine with no defects.

Solar reflect windscreens/windows is still a new technology, expensive and has it's drawbacks, such as little to no mobile & sat nav signal in cabin and many say electronic tags (which are mostly used at toll gates & some domestic situations) don't work. Ford seem unwilling to introduce it to the Fiesta, and it'd be expensive to do it aftermarket.

[cyb]

2) Then you haven't driven a car with heatprotected frontwindow yet.

and as far as I know you would be right, but which make/models have this?

3) The price is way to high for what it gives and way to many problemcars too.

I am lucky, mine is fine with no defects.

If you look at similar cars such as the Opel/Vauxhall Corsa they are all marketed around the same price and unfortunately if you are the market 'leader' you can push for more (which is why we should haggle for a better deal ;) ).

As for problems even more costly cars such a Mercedes, BMW, Audi etc are not without their problems and currently I have had no faults with my fiesta unlike my wife's Corsa.

Given the choice again would still opt for the Ford.

[Trewithy]

I have only had my Fiesta a couple of months from new and have mixed feelings about the performance of the automatic temperature control. When it has been cold outside the heater blows out hot air quickly heating the car. But on warm days the air blowing out of the vents is not cool enough and does not blow out with enough force.My preference is to not have cold air blowing directly at me but cooling the whole atmosphere inside the car, sadly I don't think the Fiesta is up to this. To be fair my previous car (Honda Jazz) was just the same. Car manufacturers are now using smaller AC compressors so there is less strain on the engine and therefore less impact on fuel consumption.

Might get a thermometer with a probe and measure the air blowing out. Does anyone know what the AC air temp at the vents should be?

[David73]

But on warm days the air blowing out of the vents is not cool enough and does not blow out with enough force. My preference is to not have cold air blowing directly at me but cooling the whole atmosphere inside the car, sadly I don't think the Fiesta is up to this.

Might get a thermometer with a probe and measure the air blowing out. Does anyone know what the AC air temp at the vents should be?

Your first point seems contradictory - tt does not blow out with enough force but you don't want it blowing directly at you. But I know what you mean. My last car had auto climate which was pretty dreadful but since it was the only car I have had with it I don't know whether it was industry standard dreadful or whether it was a characteristic of the model. Though I get the impression that generally speaking, designers of climate control systems don't have a clue.

If you feel warm the solution is not necessarily in turning the temperature down but in increasing air movement. Try doing what I do. I only use AC as last resort. As things warm up, I turn the fan up until it gets noisy. When the AC is on, don't turn the fan down to regulate temperature, instead add in some heat to avoid cold spots on bare skin (with ACC the temperature can be turned *up*).

On your second point, I think that if you put it on maximum fan and recirculation (LO with ACC), it should be about 6 degrees at the vents.

[GuitarMatt]

Glad to see other people are having not so cold a/c. My 7 month old Fiesta isn't as chilly as my Clio was, can't believe it would need a recharge already, but it looks like it's normal.

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[ChrisTi]

I remember a few summers ago driving down to cornwall in july in my zetec 1.25 (60 plate) and thinking how crap the aircon was also the temperature gauge was pretty shocking i've got a few pics somewhere of it reading 38 degress plus!

[B13]

Try hitting the air recycling button. I found the aircon to be absolutely non-existent until I did that and hey presto! VERY cold air...

;)

[gillyallan]

I find my air con fine. Maybe I've not experienced a better version.

[MattJakeT]

The recirc button makes all the difference in my fiesta

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